Last week, Olney Theatre Center announced an upcoming series of 10 special events — ranging in scope from a two-night poetry slam, to a drag-show “tribute to Black icons in music,” to cabaret performances. There’s even a Disney sing-along! In short, the well-known Montgomery County theater center is offering a little something for everyone.

Most interesting, however — Olney is offering a new “all-access” membership at just $99, which grants admission to any performance, any time, from now through June 30.  This allows access to an array of 17 separate titles, including classics like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a world premiere of The Joy That Carries You, along with free access to all the behind-the-scenes events like panel discussions with the directors and playwrights.

This is a great opportunity, any way you look at it. For example, an adult ticket to The Joy That Carries You will normally set you back anywhere from $50 to $80, while the performance series shows range from $15 to $30 per ticket. Olney’s classic membership, which goes on sale next week, typically ranges from just under $150 for a three-show preview week package, to $420 for a seven-show package that includes Saturday and Sunday performances.  However you do the math, a below – $100, all-inclusive membership for three months is quite the steal.

So what’s behind the discount?

It’s no secret that local theaters — and production companies across the country — are struggling to retain audiences that are still hesitant to return to live performances without strict COVID-19 policies. Olney is one of nearly three dozen local theaters that extended their mask and vaccination policies through April, with the intention of reevaluating them on a monthly basis, after Theatre Washington conducted an audience survey.

Joshua Ford, Olney’s director of marketing and communications, says that the theater has not seen numbers return to pre-pandemic levels yet and that a “hit” now brings in about 75 to 80% of the typical audience before COVID. The new membership tier was crafted with newer audiences in mind.

“We wanted to try and make a membership for people who don’t plan their cultural life 18 months in advance, like we do with our classic subscriber model,” Ford tells DCist. “This is something that predates the pandemic in our desire to find what replaces the traditional subscription model that a lot of theaters have relied on for the last 80 years, and the model that allows us to compete more effectively, not with other theaters, but with Netflix or any of the other streaming options out there.”

The low-priced membership is certainly not the theater’s only effort to bring in more diverse audiences. Olney’s production of A Raisin in the Sun, for example, is a pay-what-you-can performance. The theater’s run of The Music Man will be performed in both English and American Sign Language.

When asked whether other local theaters are offering similar packages, Ford mentioned Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s golden ticket program, which offers members a seat to any show on any date for a flat fee of $288, with discounted tickets for friends — plus, an option to pay $179 for the whole membership instead. When Woolly announced this all-access pass, along with an at-home streaming option in 2020, it led at least one researcher to wonder, “Is the traditional subscription model a thing of the past?”

“People have gotten really comfortable staying home and catching up on the latest streaming hit. We need to interrupt that habit,” Ford said in an email. “Things were going in the right direction before omicron hit, and that set us back. I’ve no doubt we’ll get there eventually, but it places extra pressure on theatres to make sure that what they’re presenting has relevance and urgency for the audience, to knock them out of their complacency.”

Ford notes that the state of Maryland has invested over $15 million, including a recent $11 million grant, toward Olney’s “Staging the Future” capital campaign that will help the 84-year-old theater make major renovations to its four performance spaces. Earlier this month, Olney Theatre also announced it would host “local history hours” about Black history in Sandy Spring through a partnership with the Sandy Spring Slave Museum — part of its ongoing “Community Partners” program, which is focused on antiracism work.

It’s all part of a new community-focused model, Ford says:

“The more we make ourselves an essential service, an essential part of our audience’s lives, and an essential part of our community’s life, the more support we can count on when things go pear shaped, and the better we’re serving our community as well.”